Comp #61 notes

[Donald Jonker]

Maybe the following will be helpful/interesting to people attempting the current comp.

After dying a few thousand times, I decided to dive blindly ahead... with results that are almost humorous. I've copied and pasted the following from my dump comments.

...So it turns out that being underpowered in O is different than being underpowered in V . It isn't too difficult to just dive: I somehow managed to reach lvl66 while gaining only a single level (which a nether hound took from me before killing me). There's actually a potential exploit: since you can choose to go down or up 2 levels at any staircase, one could conceivably dive to 4950' without ever leaving the stairs. I've been keeping myself to a rule of only going down one flight if I've just gone up one.

I might have survived if I had read a ?phase instead of accidentally hitting a ?WoR. The lack of infravision for HE's in this variant is troublesome, and the fact that you can't build a monster memory when reusing old savefiles means having to rely on organic memory... which in my case is faulty. So many things can paralyze you...

I'm also not sure how to select weapons in O. Would it be better to dump the rapier for a 2-blow weapon? Are slings better than longbows for assassins? The help file seems to say lighter weapons are better for assassins, but I don't know how often nor to what extent this is true.

Also not being able to reset recall is problematic. It makes this challenge character all the more challenging. Perhaps the sane thing to do is to repeat the first dive once or twice before continuing on at 1500'.

[Nick]

My 3rd character did something like what you suggest - dived aggressively, but by walking down the stairs from town. Reached about 800' on that dive, then recalled back to town. After that, I tried recalling (to 1500'), but then going upstairs as frequently as possible and dodging most combat; this worked for a while, and I'll probably try it again with my next attempt.

[buzzkill]

Originally Posted by Donald Jonker

There's actually a potential exploit: since you can choose to go down or up 2 levels at any staircase, one could conceivably dive to 4950' without ever leaving the stairs.

I've noticed this exploit if FA also. In FA, while in a dungeon, it occasionally ask if you would like to go up or down a second level, "the stairs continue up/down". I've never tried it, but I'm assuming you you can get as deep as you'd like without ever leaving the staircase by simply stair scumming, 2 down, 1 up. Reverse the process for fast ascension.

Maybe it's just me, but it kinda seems like cheating, maybe even more evil than "normal" stair scumming, since it's approximately equal to a free "teleport to a particular level of this dungeon" spell, plus start out on a staircase.

Maybe this "go up or down a second level" should only be available when playing with disconnected stairs, or a staircase memory to prevent "staircase diving".

[Psi]

Watch out for Dwarven armour - it doesn't give FA in O.

[Narvius]

Since XP/TC is a winning criteria, wouldn't it be best to quickly kill some stuff and suicide?

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Narvius

Since XP/TC is a winning criteria, wouldn't it be best to quickly kill some stuff and suicide?

Maybe in a comp with a newborn character (although I suspect not, unless you got a really good first kill). You get so much more XP/turn later on that a higher level character should be better.

One thing I did just try was starting a mage, casting magic missile (no need to waste a turn learning in O) for 2XP, then suiciding. 20 game turns, for a turn/XP value of 1/10. The current top char on the comp ladder is not quite up to this, but getting there; my recent level 45 Necro (RIP ), not a fast diving char at all, had a turn/XP of less than 1.

[Jungle_Boy]

Quick question about this Unlight ability. Does that mean it's better NOT to wield a light source? Cause my current character found the Phial of Galadrial and I'm wondering if I should have it on or not.

[Bandobras]

Yes, don't wield it. Especially now that you need the stealth badly (and damage reduction, etc.). But Galadriel is not a contender even later on.

[Jungle_Boy]

I think there are two apects of this competition at which I am fairly good. Unfortunately neither is a criteria for winning. One is a high turncount and the other is killing Harrys.

[buzzkill]

OK, I killed Smeagol at about 1600'. And sure, he died with a single blow. But all he dropped is garnets. It this normal? No weapon, no ring, what's up with that!